Light Your Own Fire

It's not often that an important work of philosophy takes the
form of an author's first science fiction novel. Savior of Fire is
an enjoyable romp as a work of fiction. Its science isn't terribly
hard and the characters are brilliantly conceived, so it might be
classed as New Wave. But it is much more.
You've just got to like a story that opens with a line like,
"At noon the sun exploded." To come upon an author with the
intestinal fortitude to start with a supernova and move on from
there is a rare thing -- I'm convinced that the first line alone is
worth the price of admission.
Savior of Fire is clearly meant to be read for enjoyment. Yet
underlying this good read is a carefully crafted, well-developed
economic philosophy.
Entrepreneurs and liberty-minded individualists will love this
story as much for its high regard for capitalistic values as for
its readability.
Not since Atlas Shrugged has the novel been used to evoke a
philosophical point so delightfully. Savior of Fire's characters
are fully dimensioned, excellent studies of humanity who grow and
evolve through the story. By paying attention to his characters
and creating strong ones, Boardman succeeds in making Savior of
Fire even more poignant.
The planet Fire is inhabited by human beings. In the 22nd
Century, visitors from Earth arrive, study the fairly advanced
civilization of Fire and decide to send help. Fire is already
quite successful economically and technologically, but lacks what
the antagonist Gordon Boston calls an advanced spiritual outlook.
Boston sets out to help the Firelings help each other. In this
way, Boardman sets up an intriguing commentary on life in America.
The point Boardman is making is best served if the people of
Fire are human beings just like those of Earth. Rather than
belabor the point with some sort of unskillful prehistoric tale
that gives gas pains to any paleoanthropologist reader, Boardman
plays with early historical myths for his explanation, which is at
once lighthearted and acceptable. He makes his point that Earth
and Fire are populated with the same species without resorting to
complexity. Rather, he openly invites the reader to play along and
see what results. He clearly wants to challenge anyone who says
that the economic system under which the people of Fire have
flourished wouldn't work for Earthlings.
One of the central characters is an economist named John
Maynard. That name seems appropriate when you realize that
Boardman is criticizing some of the economic theories of John
Maynard Keynes, the British economist whose work was the basis for
the governmental intervention typified by the New Deal. If
economics is a science, then this book represents economic science
fiction at its best. It becomes only natural that the economist
should play a central and eventually heroic role.
I realized how very much I liked not only the book but also the
people of Fire when John Maynard explains to the antagonist, "On
the planet Fire, Gordon, the people do not have, never have had,
and don't even understand the concept of -- taxes." Naturally, the
social balance of Fire is considerably upset when the Earthlings
arrive. Adding to the irony, it is a cabinet-level, United States
Department of Space Exploration mission which finds Fire in the
22nd Century. The space program is clearly an extension of the
current, government-oriented, jet-jockey-dominated,
space-for-the-elite program of today.
It was the ability of the people of Fire, led by their heroine,
to overcome the challenges of the bizarre economics of Earth that
was the best part of this book for me. It suggests that there is
some hope for changing the system we live under.

(c 1991 Jim Davidson * All Rights Reserved by Author)

Jim Davidson has always been a liberty minded individualist,
but got very serious about it after the state shut down his space
tourism company, Space Travel Services, in 1991. Jim has a
bachelor's in history from Columbia (1985), an MBA in marketing
from Rice (1987), has worked in aerospace, software, banking, real
estate, and is currently Chief Operating Officer of a $3 million
revenues medical company. Among his other interests, Jim has been
president of the Houston Space Society and scubas whenever he can.

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Enterprise, Number 3, December, 1995.